The 'goal' that never was

Clearly someone at the Premier League realised the significance of the date - September 1 - when they were programming the fixture computer.

For it will forever be a landmark date in the story of Bolton Wanderers; the dawn of a new era, consigning to history the highs and lows of the Burnden Park days.

Yet no one who was there, among a 23,000 crowd on that unforgettable first night in 1997 could have imagined what the next 10 years had in store: first relegation, then despair, before a revival that would establish the Whites as a major Premiership force.

Who could possibly have foreseen that, within a decade, Bolton Wanderers would qualify for the UEFA Cup, twice?

The Reebok's 10th anniversary is being marked by a number of celebrations and events but, for those who were there at the start and have had their memories jogged by Saturday's visit of Everton, one particular feature of that first match will dominate the thoughts - the goal that never was.

The match, marred by a sickening first-half incident in which Wanderers' new signing Robbie Elliott broke his leg, ended scoreless and the season ended with Colin Todd's Wanderers being relegated while Everton survived - both finishing on 40 points and separated only by goal difference. A hard luck story in anybody's book but even harder on Wanderers because they were cruelly robbed of a victory that just might have made all the difference.

Gerry Taggart's second-half header had clearly crossed the line before Terry Phelan hoofed it away. Almost everyone in the stadium saw it and their views were confirmed by TV replays. Crucially, referee Steve Lodge waved play on.

Such injustices, it is said, even themselves out, but not in this case. Had Wanderers survived, Todd might not have seen fit to resign a year later when, having lost in the promotion play-off final, he was under pressure to sell his best players. Then again, Sam Allardyce might never have had the chance to work his particular brand of magic.

The man at the centre of the controversy - Taggart himself - says he would probably not have left for Leicester the following summer.

Yet ironically, as he reveals in a book being published to mark the anniversary, the Northern Ireland centre-back can only go off other people's versions of the event.

"To this day, I have never seen the incident on television or video but I can still remember it," Taggart confesses in Ten Years at the Reebok'.

"It wasn't a clean header, but the ball looped towards the goal. Because of the way I had landed, I lost sight of it. What I did see, and remember distinctly, was all the lads shouting goal' and hands going in the air to claim it.

"But the referee just carried on. It wasn't given, so we just had to play on as if nothing had happened.

"Of course, we didn't realise at the time that it would come back to haunt us in the way it did.

"I have been asked lots of times since if we would have stayed up if it had been given. The answer is yes.

"I think that win against Everton would have meant more than the three points. A victory would have given us the lift and the impetus we needed. We would have had something to build on.

"It took weeks for us to get our first win at the Reebok and the pressure started to increase as the games went by.

"The stadium became a monkey on our backs. We would have avoided all that nonsense with a win over Everton that night.

"I left the club at the end of that season, but I think I would certainly have stayed if we had stayed up."

• Ten Years at the Reebok, by Tony Garner, is published on September 1, priced £16.99.